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On the two-year anniversary of the murder of four Jews in Toulouse, the president of the local Jewish community encouraged young Jews to leave France.

Arie Bensemhoun, the community’s president, said young Jews should leave Toulouse because they could not practice Judaism openly and without fear there.

“I won’t deny that, yes, I encourage the younger people to make aliyah [immigrate to Israel] or go elsewhere, where they can thrive in open Judaism, emancipated and without constantly fearing over what tomorrow will bring,” Bensemhoun said during an interview Monday with the i24 television news channel.

On March 19, 2012, 23-year-old French-born Islamist Mohammed Merah arrived armed at the Ohr Hatorah Jewish day school in Toulouse, where he killed eight-year-old Miriam Monsonego along with Rabbi Jonathan Sandler and his two sons, Arieh and Gabriel.

The event shocked many French Jews and non-Jews, and is believed to have contributed to a marked increase in the number of French Jews who immigrated in 2013 to Israel – from fewer than 2,000 in 2012 to more than 3,000 last year.

According to the SPCJ security unit of the French Jewish community, the killings triggered a wave of anti-Semitic incidents. Ninety such incidents were recorded in the 10 days that followed the shootings.

In a statement Wednesday, European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor commended French authorities for their efforts to curb anti-Semitism and urged officials to “preempt the next murders by continuing to invest in education, law enforcement against those who preach hate and incitement and to combat the extremists.”

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